Mechanochemical Nitrous Oxide Decomposition

Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is one of the top three greenhouse gases, together with carbon dioxide and methane, but it is stable enough not to be easily decomposed under thermocatalytic conditions, even at high temperature (445 °C). Herein, an efficient N₂O decomposition method is reported using nickel oxide catalyst under mechanochemical conditions operated near ambient temperature. The mechanochemical N₂O decomposition method exhibited a rapid reaction rate of 1761.3 mL h^-1 and a high conversion of 99.98% even at 42 °C, compared to the thermochemical method (294.9 mL h^-1 and 49.16% at 445 °C). Unlike equilibrium thermocatalytic states, the non-equilibrium mechanocatalytic states induced by intensive dynamic mechanochemical actions are responsible for effective N₂O decomposition under mild temperature conditions.

Keywords: ball milling; catalyst transformation; greenhouse gas mitigation; mechanochemistry; nitrous oxide decomposition.